Jerry Sandusky's Victim 1 says he contemplated suicide because investigation took so long

The young man whose claims of abuse began the criminal investigation that put Jerry Sandusky in prison said he contemplated suicide because authorities took so long to prosecute the former Penn State assistant football coach.

Speaking out publicly by name for the first time, Aaron Fisher said in an interview airing tonight on ABC's "20/20" that the Pennsylvania attorney general's office had told him it needed more victims before Sandusky would be charged. Locally, the show airs at 10 p.m. on ABC27.

Fisher told jurors that Sandusky approached him through a summer camp for youth sponsored by The Second Mile, a charity for at-risk youth the former coach had founded.

Physical contact began with a hand on his leg in the car, Fisher said, and he began spending nights at the Sandusky home in State College, about 30 miles from his own home in Lock Haven, when he was 11 years old. Kissing and back rubbing during those overnight visits progressed to oral sex. He said he tried to distance himself from Sandusky, to no avail.

Fisher was 15 when he and his mother eventually reported the abuse to the school principal, who responded that "Jerry has a heart of gold and that he wouldn't do those type of things," Fisher told ABC, repeating his trial testimony.

"They tell me to go home and think about it," he told ABC.

School officials reported Sandusky to Clinton County Children and Youth Services, which began an investigation.

The Associated Press typically does not name sexual abuse victims, unless they identify themselves publicly, as Fisher has done.

Fisher and seven other young men testified against Sandusky in June, describing a range of abuse they said included fondling and oral and anal sex when they were boys.

Sandusky didn't testify at his trial but has maintained his innocence in interviews and at sentencing. He has asked for a new trial.

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